Pomegranate

Punica granatum L.

Lythraceae

Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, gives news that in Africa, near Carthage, you could find the Punic apple that some call granatum. The things related to Carthage terms were known in the Roman world as Punic. The name of the species, granatum derived from the Latin adjective granatus, meaning 'abundant grains'. The image of Granada is commonly linked to the myth of the Rape of Proserpine by Pluto, god of Hades. Its history is very old, since grenades have been found in Egyptian tombs, possibly linked to the resurrection, like the figures holding grenades in the Phoenician sarcophagus, Punic, of the neighboring city of Cadiz, 2500 years ago. During the Middle Ages, precisely because of this myth, the fruit represented in the hand of the Child Jesus, became a symbol of resurrection. The fact that pomegranate is a fruit composed of an outer shell that encloses numerous grains led to different interpretations. It can express the concept of unity within diversity: in this sense inspired the allegorical representation of the Church, capable of uniting in one faith many peoples and cultures.
Also for Islam the pomegranate is a sacred tree: the Sura 55 of the Koran promises the blessed two lush and shady gardens from which two sources of water flow, where there will be two species of all kinds of fruits, like a plant Ark. Of these species conserved in Paradise as partners, highlights the palms and pomegranates. The city of Granada, where the Andalusians lived until 1492, bears the name of this fruit.